Around Us 03-17-10

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, March 16, 2010

LUBBOCK — The family of an innocent man who died in prison serving a Lubbock sentence will receive his pardon in a Fort Worth ceremony on Friday.

Gov. Rick Perry’s office confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Perry would hold a ceremony to present to the family of Timothy Brian Cole the pardon he signed two weeks ago.

Cole died in 1999, convicted of the aggravated sexual assault of a fellow Texas Tech student in 1985. He maintained his innocence until he died from complications of an asthma attack.

DNA testing in 2008 confirmed the story of Jerry Wayne Johnson, who had first attempted to confess to the crime after the statute of limitations ran out in 1995. Johnson remains in jail outside of Snyder.

An Austin district court exonerated Cole almost a year ago. Legislators during the 2009 session recognized the 39-year-old’s innocence and named a bill increasing compensation for wrongly convicted Texans in his honor.

Perry was sympathetic to the request but said state law did not clearly allow him to issue a pardon. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, requested an attorney general’s opinion. In January, he ruled that Perry could indeed give a posthumous pardon.

Cole’s pardon became official March 1, when Perry signed it. Friday’s ceremony will present the document to his family. — Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

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MULESHOE — It has been years in the making, but this city of 4,500 people finally has a new police station.

Ever since he came to Muleshoe in 2001, City Manager David Brunson said the city had included the construction of a new station on its long list of projects. But the planning and design didn’t start until 2008 and took about a year to get bids and work with contractors.

City officials recently conducted a tour of the new 5,000-square-foot building on Avenue C. While police officers and staff have worked out of the building since December, the tour was the first opportunity for the public to view it.

In the former building, there was limited office space and there were makeshift storage facilities for equipment and evidence. He said it had been a garage for the Fire Department before police began occupying it in 1972.

Police Chief Brian Frieda and his staff developed the design of the new department to include all their needs: a classroom for training, more offices, a communications area, storage facilities under one roof and upgraded technology.

Frieda said it was all paid for through Muleshoe’s capital improvement project, which finances a large group of city projects.

Along with the completion of its new building, the police department celebrated being the 27th in the state and first in the South Plains for meeting all the standards in the Law Enforcement Agency Best Practices Recognition Program. — Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

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AMARILLO — Amarillo police continued to search Tuesday for a man who allegedly stole a sport utility vehicle Monday night with a 2-year-old inside it.

The child, who was unharmed, was discovered with the vehicle later.

Police said the episode occurred when a 26-year-old woman left her child in her Ford Expedition with the motor running about 9 p.m. while she walked into a store in the 3600 block of East Interstate 40.

As she returned to the vehicle, she saw the man driving away.

The man was described as 19 to 20 years old and wearing a white ball cap.

The woman called 911, and police began searching the area. The Expedition was found about 20 minutes later at a truck stop in the 7000 block of East I-40 with the child inside and unharmed, police said. — Amarillo Globe-News

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AMARILLO — A memorial to people killed in work zone-related accidents will be on display Thursday in Amarillo.

The memorial, a 20-foot-long wall inscribed with the names of motorists and construction workers who have died in recent years, will be available for viewing from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at the Texas Department of Transportation travel information center at 9700 E. Interstate 40. The center is off the interstate at Exit 76.

A 1 p.m. gathering that’s open to the public will feature state Rep. David Swinford, Amarillo Mayor Debra McCartt, Department of Public Safety Trooper Gabriel Medrano, Clinton Cornell of the Association of General Contractors and Connie Berry Englund, who was injured in a work zone accident.

The Amarillo stop is the fifth in Texas for the national memorial.

In 2008, four people died in work zone-related accidents, and 93 auto accidents were logged in the upper 17 counties of the Panhandle.

Nationally, more than 800 people are killed and 40,000 injured annually in accidents that occur in roadway construction zones. — Amarillo Globe-News